A platform in which community and staff of the Edmonds School District can network, discuss issues and render aid toward resolving problems. This site is not managed by the Edmonds School District and they are not responsible for its content. Opinions expressed are not necessarily shared by the moderator.

Friday, November 28, 2008

Fact: Gary Noble was ineligible to seek election to the Board and was still ineligible when he sought re-election in 2007.This was confirmed by the State Auditor and the Attorney General. The District recently changed board policies to allow this conflict to occur for future candidates, however, Mr. Noble is to be held to the standard that was in place when he filed as a candidate.

Fact: Bruce Williams was not eligible to occupy his board position and resigned.Despite the fact that the Superintendent lied numerous times to conceal this fact, readers of the blog did a little research and uncovered what was really happening. As unfortunate as his personal life may have been, there was no reason to spew forth so many lies about modernizing apartments and what WSSDA might feel about deceptive practices.

Fact: The Piano Scam was a scam.The involvement of the District's legal counsel was to make it somehow meet a minimal threshold. The use of a lease came close but the State Auditor has confirmed that the intent was to purchase the pianos, not lease them.

Fact: Powerful Partners is stealing space from the District.The District claimed that Powerful Partners disbanded in 2007, but somehow they are still using their same name and still occupy the same space in the ESC. If an organization "disbands" are they no longer responsible for the debts they have accumulated?

Fact: The New Administration Site is contaminated.The problem with establishing this fact is the absence of legally-required documentation being filed with the appropriate agencies. Personally reading many of these documents was enough to convince staff and consultants of contamination. The District, however, wanted to funnel an additional $2,500,000.00 to a friend from Medina with wineries in Woodinville.

Fact: Capital Partnership funds have been misappropriated.When the District decided to no longer be a partner and transfer these projects to another department that is capital funded, they swept more than $150,000.00 in matchable money under the rug. This single action removed $300,000.00 in projects away from district playgrounds.

Fact: Reconfigurations are now performed by outside vendors.The District has no one on staff that has the ability to learn or understand how to maintain inventory of panels and parts. They have no one on staff that can manage a reconfiguration. They have no internal talent that can learn or become trained in reconfigurations.

Fact: The District hires friends and relatives.If you have any doubts as to the validity of this statement, you aren't getting out much. People that have come in dead last in a list of applicants have magically been hired. People that didn't even bother to apply had their applications inserted in after the deadline. People without any qualifications or experience have been hired to manage staff having jobs they don't understand.

Fact: The District did not act in the public's best interest when they sold Old Woodway Elementary.This topic will be covered in greater detail in the near future. Essentially, during the peak of our last real estate frenzy, the District advertised the entire site as being for sale. After filtering out all developers that could not perform a demolition, they then handed a vacant piece of dirt to Burnstead. The summary page of the Old Woodway appraisal says it all.

Fact: The Snohomish County Auditor does not actually audit anything.We cannot achieve public accountability if the State Auditor refers critical issues to the County Auditor, only to have her readily confess that she doesn't audit anything. Her job is more appropriately described as that of County Recorder.

Fact: The District claims they do not keep copies of checks.This statement was only made to avoid having to reveal that no rent was being collected from Powerful Partners, now Powerful Tutors. For more than six years, I personally copied every check that I received while working for the District and I never received a single check from Powerful Partners.

Fact: The District refuses to read and understand the Capital Facilities Plan before adopting it.Never fear. The document doesn't actually reveal anything anymore. There are no student generation rates nor does it provide any meaningful basis for the enrollment trends it might try to illustrate. If an agency refuses to follow their own adopted planning documents, why not just water them down so they become as meaningless as the Board?

Fact: The District hired someone to sit at home for 16 hours a week waiting for a pager to go off.Staff used to carry the pager one weekend a month as Non-Exempt employees and never received compensation for all of the hours they sat around waiting for a crisis to occur. Personally, I carried the pager for no less than 30 days a year and never received a single dollar for the inconvenience.

There are many other rather shocking revelations to discover by reading this blog. If you have any doubt as to the credibility of any statement contained herein, please feel free to contact us. You can also contact the District, but then they won't tell you anything.

Living in Edmonds, we have a great resource right at our fingertips. There is an organization called Northwest Procurement Institute that offers training in public agency procurement practices. Just take a look at the current list of course offerings. Wouldn't it be great to tap that exceptionally endowed organization to review the piano scam and truly put the issue to rest, once and for all?

We could also ask NPI to review the Powerful Partners (conveniently renamed Powerful Tutors) lease and see if it truly is a legally binding document. I don't run an "Institute" but I am fairly sure that I know a lease when I see one, or in this case, write one. If NPI can wield the weight of their considerable intellect and publicly declare whether the lease is valid, it could take a lot of pressure off of the Board and offer a respite from sniping by the blog.

But wait a minute. Isn't that the same organization that is owned and operated by a member of the school board? So, wouldn't it stand to reason that such a review has already taken place? If the Board accepted and endorsed the manner in which the pianos were acquired and declared the lease with Powerful Partners invalid, that would undermine the strength of management at NPI. This is a rather sad turn of events. The Board seemingly had an expert among them and still allowed district management to run amok. It wasn't as if there were five imbeciles on the Board. One of them actually passes himself off as an expert in the realm of procurement practices.

The same can be said of the contaminated site slated to accommodate the new administration building. Someone trained as an engineer should be able to understand the concept of contamination. So, if such an engineer were to be a member of the Board, and I am led to believe that there is such an engineer on the Board, wouldn't he be in a position to know what constitutes a significant threshold? Wouldn't he have an idea as to what constitutes a mathematical certainty and what can be relegated to a less significant margin of acceptability? Wouldn't this person's inability to grasp the concept of contamination cast a questionable shadow across his employer's ability to hire the best and brightest engineers? Of course, since he only recently asked if the site was contaminated, he clearly must have been sleeping since 2005.

We need better people on the Board. While the public may have tapped the current board members for the illusion of intelligence, it hasn't generated the sort of results we have been seeking. Having the credentials to serve the public and using them are two entirely different things. Saying you seek public accountability and actually promoting it are two different things. The Board is currently unable or unwilling to truly govern our district with the sort of leadership we desperately need.

I find it surprising that, as a nation we were able to take an awe-inspiring step forward by electing a relatively unknown senator to become our next president and yet locally, we collectively refuse to embrace the opportunity to change things for the better.

I wonder if the owner/operator of NPI truly believes that the piano scam wasn't a scam at all. I wonder if he truly believes that a signed lease with a public agency doesn't mean anything.

I wonder if an engineer in the aerospace industry truly believes that the new administration site isn't contaminated because Marla confirmed it. Perhaps if Marla taped cardboard wings on a bicycle and confirmed that it could fly, this board member would be packing his bags to fly it to his next vacation.

The foolish choices made by our elected board members, and Gary Noble, do very little to promote the intelligence and objective deliberation of district leadership, but they also weaken the strength of companies in our region.

Blog: Simplified Acquisition Procedures - Advanced - 5 Days - $830. If a public agency seeks to procure anything, just write a lease. Give Perkins a call and I am sure they can draft something hardly intelligible but that meets the minimum legal threshold.

The Board interprets our belief about their ability and potential. Our thoughts matter and how we work with the Board brings about results consistent with these beliefs.

Uri Treisman, Professor from the Dana Center at the University of Texas, recently noted that if the public thinks a board's ability is “permanently fixed” and not capable of being improved; then, expectations and interventions are impacted and the Board doesn't improve. In now 25 years in public education, I have seen that this is particularly critical for board members with low self confidence. A rare board member is strong enough to overcome and learn in spite of their own limitations. Most are victims of it. However, if we think a board member's ability can improve from effort and we accept and start with them where their ability is now, combined with a belief that if they worked with us, that together we can reach a higher and better place for their learning and performance then that is exactly what happens. Board members come to us as they are; the first and most profound variable for all board member learning is our acceptance of them as people and our belief in them as elected officials.

Our beliefs directly influence board member motivation, effort, and ultimately performance over time. Given a healthy belief about the capacity for ALL board members to make an effort, and in doing so improve, here are some tips for building board member motivation:

1. Keep board members in psychologically and emotionally safe places when they are working so they are empowered to make the effort and not be driven by fear to avoid making an effort for risk of looking bad in their own eyes and in their peer culture

2. Help board members accept in a real and honest way, where they are. Reinforce them in a caring way that they are of value at that starting place. Express hope for them in how you communicate, such that they are willing to make the effort to improve.

3. Admit with the board member that it is hard work but they are worth making the investment in themselves, their education, and their future.

4. Start with what board members know and can do, and then build on these to gain momentum.

5. Have routines for recognizing improvement and effort, as well as recognition of performance; or else for the reluctant board member you will get neither.

6. Reinforce the tenacity of board members working through new learning in your community. When their effort is rewarded and recognized, it is like priming a pump of positive energy and they will want to work harder.

7. Know your struggling board members by name and face, and not just as statistics on a chart or graph. As you build relationships and trust with them, their efforts will increase for you and with you, even if the subject matter is a struggle.

When you get together with your friends and neighbors, use the time to share strategies, approaches, and successes with each other. Talk about your practice with each other and use board member comprehension as the center piece. What we focus on as adults is what gets done, and when board member learning is our collective target, everyone wins.

Blog: This entry is a slightly modified version of something posted on the District's website. The moderator of the blog is not the original author of this material.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Sometimes it becomes necessary to pack up Camp and move to a better place. Eventually, there just aren't enough places to bury excrement and you have to move to a new place, farther from Edmonds. Of course, it doesn't help matters when many of the people around your Camp are burying their waste under your tent.

There was a great opportunity, not long ago, to make the Camp a permanent base and build a house with all of the necessary amenities to support a robust and vibrant place. Unfortunately, this Camp was overlooked as the great and vital resource that it was. Now, the Camp is moving further north.

With the uprooting of this Camp, the organization of wolves will rejoice in that no future Camps will be established and money will be saved by allowing staff to wander around with no particular direction in mind. Some will sleep for hours at a time, locked in a latrine. Others will smuggle materials to distant locations for use at their private, personal place.

A Camp offers the opportunity for nomadic people to return to a common place where ideas and stories can be shared. Without a Camp, such nomadic people will just wander aimlessly without the benefit of a unified community. As wanderers, they will be more easily picked off by wolves and budgetary predators.

Without the hope of another Camp, the outcome is obvious; wandering nomads, without the benefit of a map, will quickly get lost. These wanderers may find themselves at the Shoreline, Cape Flattery, Northshore, Kettle Falls, Mount Vernon, Mercer Island or Lake Stevens. Can we really afford to have these people wander off to new territories?

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Single reading, approve Acceptance of Public Works Contract, District Support Center - early site grading package, Resolution #08-47.It was moved by Director Shields and seconded by Director Noble to approve the acceptance of public works contract – District Support Center early site grading package, Resolution #08-47. It was confirmed that there was no soil contamination on the site and that the early site grading was complete. All aye.

So, I have to ask, who "confirmed that there was no soil contamination"? Any reasonable person would have to ask such a question. Confirmation of such a condition would require the requisite qualifications to make such an assessment. Better still, the public should, at the very least, seek "certification" from the designated environmental engineering firm working for the District. The best path forward would be an independent assessment from a third party - which will never happen.

If AMEC is prepared to certify that the site is free from contamination, the public should be reasonably confident that future problems with abating or mitigating contamination would be minimal.

This particular board action item smacks of utter stupidity. Why not just "confirm" that Gary Noble is god, that Nick Brossoit is dependable or that Marla Miller is honest. Under what authority is such a confirmation offered? What good is such a confirmation if there is nothing of substance to back up the confirmation. The only confirmation offered by the board action item is the Board's absolute and irrefutable detachment from any sense of obligation to the community.

Is anyone fooled by this meaningless confirmation inserted into the board minutes? I would be willing to bet that if you can read words written in the English language then you likely share my view that our district is being driven into the ground by a tag team of bobbleheads.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

In an effort to better support our financially-strapped public agencies, the blog has decided to offer reconfiguration services to help our community weather the storm of economic uncertainty. It is no longer necessary to contact those high-end cubicle companies to have your space reconfigured, nor is it necessary to interact with internal staff to try to ascertain just what exactly your new space might look like.

Our experience is extensive. Our lead installer has experience building out AO2 cubicles and can reconfigure a space containing 20 to 30 employees over a single weekend. Collectively, we have designed more efficient work spaces, tracked existing inventory, tapped resources for obtaining additional Herman Miller AO2 panels and pieces, coordinated the delivery of portable crates, managed the networking requirements of the new space, enlisted the services of licensed electricians to ensure safe, code-compliant connections and cleaned the entire space so staff can get to work promptly once they return.

Why confine yourself to the limitations of a static work environment when your staffing needs change all of the time? The panels move, after all. They easily come apart and easily go back together. It isn't rocket science, so why would you pay rocket science rates?

Herman Miller AO2 panels and pieces are very common and additional pieces can be acquired on the secondary market for a fraction of the original price. Our staff is even skilled at reupholstering panels to make them work in a more aesthetically pleasing manner. No mish-mash of colors or a splash of contrast where such a splash really isn't wanted.

Why waste the time of valuable, internal staff with something so simple as a reconfiguration? Why would any public agency want their employees harboring grudges against co-workers for messing up what was only an inefficient space and now is an horrendous mess that accommodates no one? Let those valuable employees get back to filling out purchase orders or tracking keys.

Our reconfiguration service is founded on one basic premise. We serve as reconfiguration consultants. We assemble the best people and products and ensure the lowest possible price and shortest possible down time because of our vast experience in the industry.

If you are concerned about what your accounting department might say about that fat check made out to ESD15.org, don't worry, as consultants we won't charge you a thing. You just pay for the parts and the hourly rate of our highly-efficient installer.

If you need a first or second opinion about how to get your space modified to meet your programmatic needs for the lowest possible price, do yourself a favor and email us immediately.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

On the 20th of November, at 8:21 AM, using Internet Explorer 7.0 and Windows 2003 with an unspecified monitor resolution and an IP address of 168.99.166.227, a user named Edmonds School District logged on to the blog.

Eight minutes and 30 seconds later, this user visited another page on the blog.

At 8:53 AM, using Internet Explorer 6.0 and Windows XP with a monitor resolution of 1024x768 and an IP address of 198.22.100.4, a user named Perkins Coie logged on to the blog. They visited the entry found by clicking here.

At 8:55 AM, this same user at Perkins Coie then visited another entry found by clicking here.

The total time spent on the blog by Perkins Coie was less than two minutes and involved visits to no more than two entries. At a rate of $360 an hour, the bill for this legal review will be - if they bill by the minute - no less than $12.00. That is 17 frozen cheese sandwiches.

Points to review by legal:

"seems to expose a rather disturbing trend"The author's impression or opinion.

"seem[s] that no one at the District is capable of seeing a legal argument"The author's impression or opinion.

"no one on staff...apparently knows when a legal threshold has been crossed"The author's impression or opinion.

"the habit of channeling business to friends"Demonstrated fact of past conduct. [See: Piano Scam]

"What are the rest of us supposed to believe about the intelligence of district management?"Asking a question. The answer could be rather flattering to district management.

"The District has developed an itchy trigger finger because they never paid for the gun or ammo and have no stake in the bloodshed the bullets may cause."If this statement suggests a veiled threat of some kind, keep in mind that the District is the one depicted as holding a gun.

"The Board continues to deny the fact that Gary Noble is a squatter and needs to be ejected from his illegitimately acquired seat."Statement of fact. [See: Gary Noble]

"The issue will no doubt end up in a court room and will result in one simple conclusion."If this is interpreted as a threat of some kind, that cannot be helped. The public has the choice to file for corrective action and will likely do so. I have faith in my community.

"Are members of the public so simple that lawyers can easily convince them to focus on a single dot rather than a line or a pattern?"This seems to be either a criticism of unknown members of the public or a compliment to the legal profession.

"The District will continue to bleed cash on lawyers when people that lack legal training or legal sense engage the services of lawyers to defend incredibly stupid choices."I am not aware of any member of district staff having passed the Washington State Bar or management actually using the opinions of such district exceptions during the course of discussions regarding facilities or operations.

"The lawyers defending the District are reminiscent of the worst sort of defense attorneys - those doing whatever is necessary to get their client off, even if their client committed the crime."A direct comparison between the District's lawyers and criminal defense attorneys working hard to serve their client. Again, a compliment to lawyers or perhaps a direct comparison with the fashion sense they may have in common.

Note to Legal: I normally work from 6:45 AM until 3:45 PM. Today would be a normal day.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

A question has been posed by a contributor to this blog that seems to expose a rather disturbing trend in the manner in which our public servants at the Edmonds School District engage law firms. It would seem that no one at the District is capable of seeing a legal argument when one is blatantly obvious. There is no one on staff that apparently knows when a legal threshold has been crossed.

With the amount of money being spent on lawyers, and the habit of channeling business to friends, the public cannot be blamed for thinking that maybe district management has friends at these law firms. After all, when a lawyer from Rotary is struggling to keep his law practice afloat, he makes a call and his wife is hired without qualifications or meaningful experience. What are the rest of us supposed to believe about the intelligence of district management?

These are the same people that are making decisions about how best to educate our children.

From a personal perspective, I was rather surprised to see the District hire Perkins Coie to challenge my use of ESD15.org for non-profit, community discussions about the Edmonds School District. [Let the legal billing begin, The District wants your wool socks] If ever there was a reason to use .org, a public forum would be the perfect venue for such a domain. Hiring a high-priced law firm to mail a few threatening letters does nothing more than incur legal fees that have to be covered by the public.

Perhaps it would be a good idea to have a portion of the legal fees incurred by the District passed along to the manager that engaged the firm to mount an offensive position on the issue. Perhaps 10%? Maybe 25%? The District has developed an itchy trigger finger because they never paid for the gun or ammo and have no stake in the bloodshed the bullets may cause.

Next was the senseless defense of Gary Noble's ineligibility to run for a seat on the Board. Despite the fact that board policies were written in English and they were very easy to understand, the District's next law firm relied upon irrelevant state laws to manufacture a non-existent defense of Gary Noble. [Gary Noble should immediately resign, "Exit Items" reveal that Gary Noble must go, Shoveling smoke and talking by the hour] The State Auditor and Attorney General have both weighed in and have concluded that Gary Noble is out of compliance. The Board continues to deny the fact that Gary Noble is a squatter and needs to be ejected from his illegitimately acquired seat.

The issue will no doubt end up in a court room and will result in one simple conclusion. Unfortunately, the legal fees incurred by the District will never be covered by Gary Noble, despite the fact that his refusal to relinquish an undeserved seat is at the root of legal expenses.

The question posed was this:When is a law firm obligated to advise their client that the facts do not support their case?

On the one hand, the law firm is made up of partners that have an expectation of maximizing income for their firm. On the other, the firm needs to adequately protect their client from incurring unnecessary charges chasing after bad policies that will only result in future losses.

Is a law firm doing its job when their client spends very little paying for lawyers? Of course. Where is the sense of justice when a law firm just spins bad decisions long enough to wear down their opponent? What happens when such cases arrive before a jury? Are members of the public so simple that lawyers can easily convince them to focus on a single dot rather than a line or a pattern?

The District will continue to bleed cash on lawyers when people that lack legal training or legal sense engage the services of lawyers to defend incredibly stupid choices. The lawyers defending the District are reminiscent of the worst sort of defense attorneys - those doing whatever is necessary to get their client off, even if their client committed the crime.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Interesting article in our local paper on the sparsely populated side of the state. Seems the State Auditor is concerned with travel costs paid by Washington school district for professional meetings. Spending too much money on hotel rooms, not renting economy cars, etc. Now, we are talking about 1/3 of 1% of the total amount of money spent on schools, but "reducing travel costs...would free up more dollars to educate kids." (Tri-City Herald, 11/17/08, B1)

Paying the school superintendent less than the governor would have the same effect. Not purchasing contaminated land would have the same effect. Not lease/purchasing pianos through a purposefully convoluted process (and not being able to find the paperwork or checks) would have the same effect. Not paying relatives above the standard pay grade would have the same effect. The list is extensive, Mr Sonntag.

Yes, it was the bean counters who finally got Al Capone, but it seems that our Auditor's office is missing the big picture here. Knocking a district for staying at the hotel/convention center rather than the Motel 6 at the edge of town (and having to perhaps rent a car to get to the conference) while ignoring the waste of millions of dollars on the purchase of contaminated property that the district has refused for years to purchase (or any of the dozen or so issues placed before the Auditor's office) seems myopic.

But perhaps, if the Auditor can get an article in the paper every once in a while that "shows" he is doing "something," that would satisfy his goal of looking productive even if the big fish get away.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

The agenda for the Board meeting scheduled for November 18th includes a first reading for the closure of Woodway and a first reading for the closure of Evergreen. What happened to the "study" being conducted by the CPC? What happened to the deliberation by the Board? The CPC was to study and develop a plan for consolidation. Where is that plan?

Will the Board at least "read" something to the audience during the Board meeting? Normally, they think that reading the agenda item constitutes an actual reading of the action item. The rest of us would like to know what is happening and just because our elected BMs don't care doesn't mean the rest of us don't either.

It must be very troubling to be a parent of students at Woodway or Evergreen. They appear to be rather quiet on this topic. Have they been drinking Nick's Kool-Aid?

In a matter of a few years, the Evergreen site will be grabbed by the City of Mountlake Terrace at some bargain basement price - or perhaps just given away. The City wants to develop the site and has been threatening to do so for years. It wasn't long ago when they attempted to rezone the site, making it impossible for the school to make any meaningful improvements. So why did greater minds seek to confront this change in zoning?

When it all comes down to it, the City will get their zoning, a developer will get the site and Marla will get whatever it is that she wants from this. The only loser in the process will be the taxpayers of the Edmonds School District.

NEW BUSINESS (2 minutes each)1. Single reading, approve Acceptance of Public Works Contract, District Support Center - early site grading package, Resolution #08-47.2. First reading, Woodway Elementary School Closure (no action)3. First reading, Evergreen Elementary School Closure (no action)

Saturday, November 15, 2008

While many in public service are only interested in how things look at the surface, there are many of us that poke and prod at issues that casual observers care not to explore.

For instance, the State Auditor is currently using a Google-supported script to generate an email every time his name surfaces in a blog entry. My logs show that he doesn't really spend much time reading, just staying long enough to see how others might perceive him. He isn't reading for substance, just trying to glean the manner in which his name is being used.

What makes this habit terribly unfortunate is that public agencies lose their ability to delve into topics in a meaningful way. They begin to evaluate issues by limiting themselves to how the public may see them. Obsession with public perception is at the root of what is eroding our public agencies. As public interest and analytical abilities wane and vanish, the public agencies being "held accountable" slip further and further from their assigned path of due diligence.

When forced to contend with an adversarial relationship, they only see opponents in very simple terms. Enemies of the organization are pounded into pre-defined roles that are better understood by the public. From hours of watching television, the public knows that opponents tend to wear dark clothing, have facial scars and are most active in the evening hours.

Public agencies have adopted a strategy of illusion. Dazzle your constituents with simple trickery and slight of hand maneuvers and no one will cast an unfavorable glance in your direction.

Fortunately, there are still a lot of public agencies that believe in their organizational mission. Unfortunately, the Edmonds School District is not one of them.

Monday, November 10, 2008

At the last Board Meeting, I specifically asked the Board to be accountable and RESPOND to the public in their requests – not just the "Thank you for your comments" – truly respond, state their positions and be accountable to the community they serve. Simply, they did not and acted as if I was not even in the room.

The only time this Board responds to issues is when they are addressed by the media (or to an issue that the Administration requests – of which it is a "rubber stamp") - NEVER to the public or the "rank and file staff". This is unacceptable when there are huge cuts in services being proposed by the Superintendent. A partial list of issues and abuses brought to them over the last year includes:

Children being denied food and embarrassed at school

School Lunches rising over 100% in a single year (no other school district has prices CLOSE to this)

A multi-million dollar overpayment of a contaminated land purchase

The implementation of a policy to charge PTAs rental fees so they can volunteer their time for our kids

Clear circumvention of procurement procedures to purchase hundreds of thousands of dollars for pianos

Clearly ignoring the active promotion of a culture of fear amongst district employees

Ignoring repeated calls to address school closures and dismantling the Terrace Park Middle School Program in a responsible manner

Ignoring fraudulent actions on the part of a Board member, Dr. Bruce Williams and spending thousands of dollars in legal fees that should be going to our kids

Ignoring a clear conflict of interest by another board member, Mr. Gary Noble, to run for a seat he was ineligible to run for (and did anyways with full knowledge of the violation).

And the list goes on, and on.

We need a fundamental change in the School Board to allow us to create a District that is representative of our community, operates effectively and independently from the Administration, provide QUALITY education to our kids and communicate with our parents and district staff.

We need to vote the entire board out of office and start fresh. We need a board that is RESPONSIVE to the needs of the community and is ACCOUNTABLE to the community they serve.

Saturday, November 08, 2008

In reviewing blog traffic recently, it has become abundantly clear that our entries are being read by a wide range of people from a wide range of places. Many of our visitors have been reading articles from the summer of 2007 while the majority are reading several entries every day.

Thanks to StatCounter, I can tell how long each visitor is staying on the blog, what articles they are reading, in what order and where they go once they leave esd15.org. This is powerful information and can be used to specifically guide topics for discussion. I know what is interesting to our visitors and I know what generates the most traffic.

The vast majority of our visitors come from a Google search of keywords. There are many other search engines being utilized, but the bulk of searches come by way of Google. The same can be said of browser locations. There are many people visiting the blog from all over the world, but the vast majority come from Snohomish County.

People are using Google to search for things like "Nick Brossoit", "Edmonds School District blog", "election results", "Randy Dorn", "pat shields school board edmonds", "School district superintendent, no trespass, retaliation", "why cheese sandwich in schools" and "Seattle Northwest Securities school bond". What is most interesting is that the information presented on the blog will be available for many years to come. It will forever illustrate what this current band of scoundrels has been up to and it will offer all of the evidence for their misdeeds for the foreseeable future.

The blog also has more than 186,364 page views and more than 500 entries.

Additionally, the blog has been contacted by countless concerned parents and community members expressing a desire to stop this obvious and deplorable conduct. The general consensus at present is to challenge the District in court. The Board has been given every opportunity to correct their behavior and, to date, has demonstrated a shocking disregard for the public. I am inclined to believe that change will not happen without a court decision.

The next step in this process is to have the Gary Noble issue heard in court. Only through such a process can the many issues presented in this blog be presented in a courtroom - to be heard by a jury.

Clearly we have a problem. The blog, the State Auditor and the Attorney General all believe that Gary Noble was not eligible to run for a seat on the school board. It was recommended that board policies be changed to prevent this sort of stupidity from happening again. Those policies have been changed, but the illegitimate outcome of last year's election has not yet been corrected.

As the next phase moves forward, Gary Noble needs to decide if his unjustified seat on the Board is worth racking up additional legal expenses for the District.

Thursday, November 06, 2008

So far, on all of these issues where board policies and state law were violated, where the superintendent lied repeatedly to protect the sanctity of the board and its members, where crooked deals were pieced together to enrich friends and associates on the District's dime, we have seen something rather amazing unfold. The board and its tentacles are so enamored by themselves and their minions that all logic, fact and basic extrapolation are thrown out the window in favor of a simple tenet. They are God.

The Board is infallible, therefore all supporting evidence must be fabricated to support any conclusions they have already adopted - with the greatest of faith and divine intervention, no doubt. Anyone that dares speak against the sanctity of the Holy Board must immediately be labeled a heretic and cast asunder.

Contrary to this opinion is an ever-expanding string of irrefutable facts all leading to a simple conclusion of District corruption. We have the single cell organisms. We have the amphibious vertebrates crawling from the primordial soup. We have the prosimian. We have the Homo Habilis, Homo Erectus and Homo Sapien. We have the Olduwan, Acheulean, Iron Age and the Industrial Revolution. We have all of the evidence demonstrating the depth and scope of corruption in the District, but the Board, in all of its holiness, has adopted a new way of thinking: Facts are meaningless unless ordained and consecrated by the Holy Board.

Editorial: The Scientific Method seeks conclusions from facts while the Creationist Method seeks facts to support conclusions.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Randy Dorn held a slim lead over incumbent Terry Bergeson in early returns Tuesday in the race to become Washington state's top schools official.

If Dorn wins, it would be a big upset for Bergeson, who has spent three terms in office, and hasn't had a tight race since she first ran for the post in 1992 and lost.

"We gave the voters of the state a choice and we think we're going to win, and it will be the best thing for kids," Dorn said. "We definitely need a new set of eyes and a new leader in education."

Bergeson said she knew the race would be close, and laid some of the blame on the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which requires states to test students more than ever before.

"That's why I'm in trouble tonight," she said. "It's the weight of too much testing and too much negativity."

Win or lose, she said, she plans to find a way to work with President-elect Barack Obama's administration to make major changes in the No Child Left Behind law. Bergeson sought a fourth term to continue work she's done since the mid-1980s.

She has presided over efforts to write new learning standards for students, and to develop tests to judge whether they've reached them.

Those tests are known as the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL), which are given in grades 3-8 and 10, and cover reading, math and, in some grades, writing and science.

If re-elected, she said, this four-year term would be her last.

Dorn, executive director of a union that represents 26,000 teacher aides, bus drivers, janitors and other school employees, said he ran because he's become disenchanted with Bergeson's leadership.

As a state representative from 1987 to 1994, he helped write the education law that Bergeson has implemented, but he says she's taken it in directions that he and others never intended.

If elected, he pledged to work to get rid of the WASL and replace it with a shorter, less-expensive exam.

He particularly objected to the way Bergeson developed the math section of the WASL, saying it tested students' reading abilities as much as their math skills.

Dorn's union played a big financial role in the race.

The political-action committee of the SEIU's national office sunk about $400,000 into ads supporting Dorn, and others opposing Bergeson. Dorn sits on the SEIU national board.

Marla Miller

Comparing apples to oranges.

State Auditor's Campaign

I suspect they mean "inefficiency".

Barack H. Obama

"To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist."

Robert F. Kennedy

"Each time a man stands up for an ideal," he said in a 1966 speech to South African students, "or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

Martin Luther King, Jr.

I do not think of political power as an end. Neither do I think of economic power as an end. They are ingredients in the objective that we seek in life. And I think that end or that objective is a truly brotherly society, the creation of the beloved community.

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